I’m stumped and could really use some help on this one. 1967 Cougar, manual steering. Earlier this year I installed a new Lares steering box with a new pitman arm (converted from 1" to 1-1/8" sector shaft). Now, when I turn the wheels to the left, the inner tie rod end hits against the cross member. It’s not even close to clearing. When I turn to the right, the other tie rod end would also hit the cross member… if the center link didn’t bump against the starter first. I’m clearly missing something obvious. Could the pitman arm be too long? Cross member bent? Any other ideas?
The “ACP” pitman arm looks 'funny". Not sure if that is the issue…
There are 2 different idler arms… one for manual & one for power.
The crossmember looks like it has taken a hit and is bent rearward by several inches.
Was going to say the same thing, that cross brace under the oil pan looks like its bent way backwards looking at picture #4.
Looks like several things going on. As others have said crossmember bent back- mine tucks pretty close to oil pan. Also what type of starter is that as it appears “long”? Also wonder if you have some mismatched manual and power steering pieces. Kind of hard to believe it worked before you swapped steering box.
I appreciate getting some feedback from people who are more familiar with how it should look.
The car’s been off the road for almost 2 years while I slowly work my way down a laundry list of issues (cleaning up the underside is clearly toward the bottom of the list…). I put the new steering box in almost 8 months ago and I thought I tested it and it turned freely at that time. Maybe I just didn’t notice how bad the rubbing is. Who knows.
But I have a theory… since then I also added a new export brace. I had the car jacked up by the crossmember for a few days and I’m thinking that was probably a bad idea. Not only did it not help to spread the shock towers apart, I’m wondering if it also bent the crossmember back. I wouldn’t think so, but here I am.
Regardless, I’ll see if I can find a replacement crossmember and go from there. Maybe I’ll grab a new idler arm too for grins. This one is about 15 years old. I’m fairly confident in the pitman arm since there’s really no way to mix up m/s and p/s. I’ll report back.
Well, you guys put me on the right track. I have this one figured out.
First, the starter. It’s a PowerMaster 9603 and it has generally worked really well for me. I put a tape measure on it, and it’s exactly the same length as the stock unit. I think the center link has been lightly rubbing on it for a while, but maybe it’s slightly worse now. Well… turns out the starter body can be clocked to any position relative to its mounting block. Either it slipped over time or, more likely, it just wasn’t in a good position to begin with. I’ve repaired it and rotated it. Fits fine now with plenty of clearance all around.
The crossmember is definitely bent. It probably did take a hit at some point over the past 54 years, but I’m sure jacking on it pushed it back to the point that it now interferes. I’ll be installing a new, beefier one that ties in to the LCA mounts, then I should be good to go!
Thanks again, everyone.
Glad you made progress. I put a clockable Powermaster starter in my car thinking I would gain adjustability with header heat soak. I found with model I have that only two positions would work and of those only one made sense. So the clock ability was not much use. The crossmember is pretty light tube plus the two bolts holding it in place don’t have much thread contact so you have to be careful tightening them as it could be easy to strip the threads- so as a jack point not a good idea. You probably could straighten your bent one, but a replacement is not a bad idea as well. Thanks for a report back.
Jacking by the stock cross member… maybe not such a good idea. Old vs. new:
That cross member has been hit. That damage isn’t from jacking the car up.
Yeah, it was probably knocked back a little at some point but it certainly got worse after jacking.